DATE LINES / News, notes and updates from the Bay Area arts and culture scene compiled by Chronicle staff writers and critics

Robert Hurwitt, Ruthe Stein, Aidin Vaziri

Published
4:00 am PST, Monday, October 30, 2006

Actress Courtney Love arrives for the U.S. premiere of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood October 23, 2006. REUTERS/Phil McCarten (UNITED STATES) 0 less

Actress Courtney Love arrives for the U.S. premiere of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood October 23, 2006. ... more

Photo: PHIL McCARTEN

Photo: PHIL McCARTEN

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Actress Courtney Love arrives for the U.S. premiere of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood October 23, 2006. REUTERS/Phil McCarten (UNITED STATES) 0 less

Actress Courtney Love arrives for the U.S. premiere of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood October 23, 2006. ... more

Photo: PHIL McCARTEN

DATE LINES / News, notes and updates from the Bay Area arts and culture scene compiled by Chronicle staff writers and critics

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Corey Fischer to play Loman in 'Salesman'

Willie Loman isn't quite butting heads with himself in his ever-fruitless pursuit of the deceptive American dream, but he's coming awfully close. The invaluable Corey Fischer will undertake the role of the hapless Loman, one of the greatest parts in American drama, when Traveling Jewish Theatre presents Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" in April. Keith Phillips, a co-founder of Actors Theatre of San Francisco (as Fischer is of TJT), is playing Loman now in an Actors production that runs into mid-December.

Anyone who sees both shows won't see the same "Salesman" twice. The Actors production, staged by Keith's brother Christian Phillips and Marcella Pethes, should take the more traditional approach to Miller's searing drama. TJT's version, staged by Artistic Director Aaron Davidman (who recently directed Shotgun Players' "Love Is a Dream House in Lorin"), with an original cello score by Moses Sedler, proposes to look more closely at the Lomans as a first-generation American Jewish family -- like the playwright's parents. Jeri Lynn Cohen plays the key role of Willie's wife, Linda.

"Salesman" is the second offering of a two-play season for TJT, which is currently presenting a set of workshop readings (last one tonight). The season opens at the company's home space in January with co-founder Naomi Newman in "Rose," by Martin Sherman ("Bent"). Joan Mankin directs the story of one woman's 20th century saga, from childhood in a Russian shtetl through the Warsaw ghetto, a refugee ship, a hippie commune and an Israeli kibbutz to Miami Beach. The play moves to the Mountain View Center of the Performing Arts and Shotgun's Ashby Stage in Berkeley in February.

"Salesman" opens in April at the larger Project Artaud Theatre, upstairs from TJT's venue, then travels to Mountain View and Berkeley's Julia Morgan Theatre in May. -- Robert Hurwitt

The 'Chicago' original

at silent film festival

We've had "Chicago" the musical and "Chicago" the Oscar-winning movie musical. Now the original film version of the 1926 play that they were based on will screen at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 at the Castro Theatre, in a special presentation of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

"What makes this such a remarkable find is that it's the real thing -- it isn't a nostalgia piece about the Roaring Twenties, it is the Roaring Twenties," Stephen Salmons, the festival's artistic director, said in a statement. The silent film, which stars Phyllis Haver as Roxie Hart, was made in 1927.

Also on Dec. 2 in the afternoon, the festival will present a program of Walt Disney's early cartoons called "Silly Symphonies" in which frogs, trees and skeletons are shown dancing to popular music from the 1920s. This will be followed by a panel discussion by animation experts and Disney scholars.

On Saturday, Courtney Love will appear at the last place you would expect to find her. No, not the beauty shop. The troubled actress/rock star is coming to Book Passage in bucolic Corte Madera, where she is scheduled to sign copies of her new memoir, "Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love" (released on Halloween, no less). The signing starts at 2 p.m. But that's just one stop on her whirlwind Bay Area book tour. On the same day, Love also has a signing scheduled at Cody's Books on Fourth Street in Berkeley (7-9 p.m.). A day earlier, at 7 p.m. Friday, she appears at Borders in San Francisco's Mission Bay.

Keeping with her promise in the introduction, "I have always said that I would never write a book, and I really haven't," the tome is arranged scrapbook style, pulling together collages of Love's old report cards, journal entries and juvenile hall records.

Oh, there are also lots of photos featuring the likes of Elton John, Hillary Clinton and Michael Stipe, along with never-before-seen shots of the 42-year-old author's daughter Frances Bean and late husband, Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain.

The results are in, sort of, and the late August Wilson tops the list as the most-produced playwright in America for the theater season that got under way in September. That's the result of American Theatre magazine's annual tally of productions scheduled at companies that belong to the Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for America's theaters.

That means the list doesn't include productions at nonmember groups, and it doesn't account for season changes and those many, pesky to-be-announced slots. Nor does the list include plays by a certain William Shakespeare, who so dominates the national theater scene that he's been banned from the count to give mere mortals a chance. (Charles Dickens is similarly ostracized, at least so far as the adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" are concerned.) But the 24 productions of Wilson's plays planned this year represent an impressive tribute in the wake of his untimely demise.

The top play being staged around the country this season is Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife" (at 13 productions), followed closely by Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman" (12). "Wife" has already played here in the Best of Broadway series; "Pillowman" opens at Berkeley Rep in January. Wilson's most-produced play, "Gem of the Ocean" (part of American Conservatory Theater's last season), is tied at nine with Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" (a hit for TheatreWorks last year). San Jose Rep is staging two plays on the list this season, its current offering, "Moonlight and Magnolias" (by Ron Hutchinson), and its final selection in the spring, David Lindsay-Abaire's "Rabbit Hole" (running even at eight each).

One immortal does make the list, Molière, whose "Tartuffe" (opening Nov. 14 at Marin Theatre Company) is tied at seven with Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher's "Tuesdays With Morrie" (running through Nov. 18 at Walnut Creek's Center Rep, after another outing at San Jose Rep a year ago) and with Steve Martin's adaptation of Carl Sternheim's "The Underpants" (also seen at San Jose Rep in recent years). But hey, who's counting? -- Robert Hurwitt

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ITEMS

-- The opening of the documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple," will include appearances by director Stanley Nelson and Jim Jones Jr., the adopted son of the Rev. Jim Jones, and Bryan and Kristine Kravitz, former members of the Peoples Temple. They will speak at select shows Friday at the Shattuck in Berkeley and Saturday at the Lumiere in San Francisco. For information, call (415) 267-4803 or go to www.landmarktheatres.com.

-- Seabrien Arata of Pacifica won the preliminary round of Guitar Center's Drum Off. Having joined the 188 semifinalists selected from the more than 5,000 contestants, Arata will compete for a $40,000 top prize against seven other semifinalists in the district finals Nov. 8 at Guitar Center in San Francisco.